How To Prepare Plants For Winter Months

The recent weather has caught most of us by surprise

. Garden chores that should have been done before such cold temperatures arrived will need to be accomplished during this period of warmer weather. Thin-barked and recently transplanted trees should have a protective wrap placed around the trunk. These protective wraps will keep the bark from warming in the afternoon sunlight. The subsequent sudden drop in the bark temperature after sundown may cause the bark to split. Several products can be used including wraps made of plastic, paper or burlap.

Frozen ground and winter winds can cause severe damage to your landscape plants. A lot of moisture is lost from the twigs and buds of deciduous trees and from the needles of evergreens. By keeping the soil moist around plants until the ground freezes, you can increase their chances of surviving winter.

Soak the soil to a depth of at least 18 to 24 inches before it freezes in the fall, or after the surface thaws with the melting snow.

Mulching in the fall will conserve moisture from evaporation and reduce alternate freezing and thawing of soil. Add three to six inches of organic mulch when the soil temperature is close to freezing.

Mulch should be applied to strawberries after plants have been exposed to several frosts but before heavy freezes below 20 degrees. Usually this won't happen until after Thanksgiving, and some years not much before Christmas.

Wheat straw makes a good mulch and is easier to find than other materials. Cover the plants so there will be a 3-inch layer after settling. Don't use materials that will pack down and smother the plants. Straw may contain weed seeds, but there are several ways to deal with this problem.

You could use one-year-old straw. Or you could soak the bales with water to pre-germinate the weeds. If you are growing a high quality/high maintenance bluegrass or fescue lawn, you should fertilize now even if you fertilized in September. A November application will help promote root growth until the soil freezes. It will improve the lawn's color next spring without the excessive top-growth that early spring fertilization usually causes.

If you fertilize late this fall, you won't need to fertilize your cool-season lawn again until mid or later May.

Outdoor planters will need special attention after temperature extremes. Soil in containers will freeze and thaw more frequently than soil in normal sites. Be certain that it is moist and remains moist throughout the winter. Mulch the soil surface with three inches of shredded bark. Termites and fire are not hazards usually associated with bark mulch, but if you are concerned nonetheless, substitute with rock mulch.

You may wish to insulate containers by sinking them to the rim in soil, surrounding them with straw bales or by moving them to more protected sites. Plastic, clay or metal containers used for non-hardy plants should be emptied and cleaned. Place them upside down in a protected location outdoors or store them indoors.

Wooden containers should remain filled with moist soil and covered with plastic to reduce evaporation. Wood containers will dry, shrink and fall apart if left empty over the winter.

by: Milos Pesic

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